Nvidia Partners Launch Pricey New 9800 GX2 Cards

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Graphics cards based on the new Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2 architecture have hit the street  and boy, what a price tag.

Depending on the configuration, the new cards are roughly $200 more than the GeForce 8800 GTS (512 Mbyte) configurations, the next step down in performance in the Nvidia graphics card line. Nvidia claims that the new cards will be 50 percent faster than the GeForce 8800 Ultra.

Manufacturers Asus, Foxconn, and PNY both announced their GX2 cards on Tuesday, each priced over $500.

The GX2, as the name suggests, packs two GeForce 9800 GPUs on a single printed circuit board. The reported default clock speed is 675 MHz, according to Nvidia, with 256 shaders running at 1.69 GHz and the memory clock operating at 1.1 GHz. The GX2 family also allows gamers to pair tow GX2 cards together, allowing 4X SLI.

Asus announced the EN9800GX2/G/2DI/1G SLI-ready PCI Express graphics card on Tuesday, with a suggested price of $599. For that price, buyers will receive a card with a full gigabyte of frame buffer memory, as well as the game Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. A "SmartDoctor" software tool allows tweaking the engine and memory clocks without the need to reflash the BIOS, the company said. Unsurprisingly, the card also supports HDCP.